When New York Penn Station was built in the early 20th century, a passageway beneath 33rd Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues seamlessly connected passengers to transit, hotels, stores, and businesses along the block-long span adjacent to the new station. The Gimbels Passageway, as it came to be known, gave passengers easy access to the Hotel Pennsylvania, Gimbels Department Store (a then-major rival to Macy’s), and the rapid transit hub at 34th Street-Herald Square, where passengers could reach multiple elevated and subway lines.

The passage survived the decline of rail traffic in the mid-twentieth century, and the controversial demolition of Penn Station’s headhouse in 1963, but it was closed in 1986 during the period in which New York City nearly declared municipal bankruptcy, and disinvestment in mass transit led to a rise in crime and squalor throughout the subway system.

According to the environmental impact study, Vornado would build new subway entrances at Seventh Avenue between West 32nd and 33rd streets; widen the congested northbound No. 1 line platform by six feet; and widen stairs and build new escalators and elevators to serve the subway and PATH lines. It would also improve access to the Sixth Avenue subway and PATH entrances, which are both now hidden inside the Manhattan Mall.

But the most dramatic change in the proposal might be a plan to open a sanitized, 21st Century edition of the old Gimbels Passageway — the creepy corridor that once connected the Herald Square and Penn Station/Seventh Avenue subway stations, until crime and squalor forced the MTA to close it in 1980.

The concourse would be widened to 16 feet from 9 feet and crafted like Rockefeller Center’s, with stores, artwork and mid- block access points.

The MTA strongly supports this project – both the subway and transit improvements and the new tower that will rise above them. Although we can’t bring back the old Penn Station, through a series of very significant improvements such as those proposed as part of this development, we will be able to bring back the high level of convenience and amenity that the public deserves.”

Moynihan Train Hall’s expected opening in 2020 will give passengers new entrances, retail, waiting areas, and train access, and will enable the renovation and streamlining of existing passenger spaces throughout the station. In September 2018, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced plans for a new pedestrian plaza and Long Island Rail Road entrance on 33rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The project also includes renovation and expansion of the LIRR passenger concourse under 33rd Street.

Reopening Gimbels Passageway would complete this transformation, by linking the B/D/F/M subway trains and PATH at Sixth Avenue, with the 1/2/3 and A/C/E subway trains, Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and New Jersey Transit at Penn/Moynihan Station between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. It would be a low-cost, high-profile enhancement to the renewal of Penn Station, and an opportunity for an innovative public/private partnership with the real estate community.